Geordie

Name	Geordie
Altname	Tyneside English, Newcastle English
States	England
Region	Tyneside
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam2	Germanic
Fam3	West Germanic
Fam4	North Sea Germanic
Fam5	Anglo-Frisian
Fam6	English
Fam7	Northern English
Fam8	Northumbrian dialect
Ancestor	Old English
Ancestor2	Middle English
Image
Imagescale	1.15
Imagecaption	Television presenters Ant and Dec are Geordies from Newcastle upon Tyne
Map
Mapcaption	Map of the Tyneside built up area with Newcastle in red.

History

Like all English dialects, the Geordie dialect traces back to the Old English spoken by Anglo-Saxon settlers, initially employed by the ancient Brythons who fought Pictish invaders after the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who arrived became ascendant politically and culturally over the native British through subsequent migration from tribal homelands along the North Sea coast of mainland Europe. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerged in the Dark Ages spoke largely mutually intelligible varieties of what is now called Old English, each varying somewhat in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. In Northern England and the Scottish borders, then dominated by the kingdom of Northumbria, there developed a distinct Northumbrian Old English dialect, which preceded modern Geordie. The linguistic conservatism of Geordie means that poems by the Anglo-Saxon scholar the Venerable Bede can be translated more successfully into Geordie than into standard modern English.

The British Library points out that the Norse, who primarily lived south of the River Tees, affected the language in Yorkshire but not in regions to the north. This source adds that "the border skirmishes that broke out sporadically during the Middle Ages meant the River Tweed established itself as a significant northern barrier against Scottish influence". Today, many who speak the Geordie dialect use words such as gan ('go' – modern Dutch «gaan») and bairn ('child' – modern Danish «barn»), which "can still trace their roots right back to the Angles".

Geographical coverage

People

When referring to the people, as opposed to the dialect, dictionary definitions of a Geordie typically refer to a native or inhabitant of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, or its environs, an area that encompasses North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside and Gateshead. This area has a combined population of around 700,000, based on 2011 census-data.

The term itself, according to Brockett, originated from all the North East coal mines. The catchment area for the term "Geordie" can include Northumberland and County Durham or be confined to an area as small as the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the metropolitan boroughs of Tyneside.

Scott Dobson, the author of the book Larn Yersel Geordie, once stated that his grandmother, who was brought up in Byker, thought the miners were the true Geordies. There is a theory the name comes from the Northumberland and Durham coal mines. Poems and songs written in this area in 1876 (according to the OED), speak of the "Geordie".

Dialect

Academics refer to the Geordie dialect as "Tyneside English".

According to the British Library, "Locals insist there are significant differences between Geordie and several other local dialects, such as Pitmatic and Mackem. Pitmatic is the dialect of the former mining areas in County Durham and around Ashington to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, while Mackem is used locally to refer to the dialect of the city of Sunderland and the surrounding urban area of Wearside".

Etymology

A number of rival theories explain how the term Geordie came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name George, "a very common name among the pitmen" (coal miners) in North East England; indeed, it was once the most popular name for eldest sons in the region.

One account traces the name to the times of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. The Jacobites declared that the natives of Newcastle were staunch supporters of the Hanoverian kings, whose first representative George I reigned (1714–1727) at the time of the 1715 rebellion. Newcastle contrasted with rural Northumberland, which largely supported the Jacobite cause. In this case, the term "Geordie" may have derived from the popular anti-Hanoverian song "Cam Ye O'er Frae France?", which calls the first Hanoverian king "Geordie Whelps", a play on "George the Guelph".

Another explanation for the name is that local miners in the northeast of England used Geordie safety lamps, designed by George Stephenson, known locally as "Geordie the engine-wright", in 1815 rather than the competing Davy lamps, designed about the same time by Humphry Davy and used in other mining communities. Using the chronological order of two John Trotter Brockett books, Geordie was given to North East pitmen; later he acknowledges that the pitmen also christened their Stephenson lamp Geordie.

Linguist Katie Wales also dates the term earlier than does the current Oxford English Dictionary; she observes that Geordy (or Geordie) was a common name given to coal-mine pitmen in ballads and songs of the region, noting that such usage turns up as early as 1793. It occurs in the titles of two songs by songwriter Joe Wilson: "Geordy, Haud the Bairn" and "Keep your Feet Still, Geordie". Citing such examples as the song "Geordy Black", written by Rowland Harrison of Gateshead, she contends that, as a consequence of popular culture, the miner and the keelman had become icons of the region in the 19th century, and "Geordie" was a label that "affectionately and proudly reflected this," replacing the earlier ballad emblem, the figure of Bob Crankie.

In the English Dialect Dictionary of 1900, Joseph Wright gave as his fourth definition of "Geordie": A man from Tyneside; a miner; a north-country collier vessel, quoting two sources from Northumberland, one from East Durham and one from Australia. The source from Durham stated: "In South Tyneside even, this name was applied to the Lower Tyneside men."

Newcastle publisher Frank Graham's Geordie Dictionary states:
In Graham's many years of research, the earliest record he found of the term's use dated to 1823 by local comedian Billy Purvis. Purvis had set up a booth at the Newcastle Races on the Town Moor. In an angry tirade against a rival showman, who had hired a young pitman called Tom Johnson to dress as a clown, Billy cried out to the clown:

(Rough translation: "Oh man, who but a fool would have sold off his furniture and left his wife? Now, you're a fair downright fool, not an artificial fool like Billy Purvis! You're a real Geordie! Go on, man, and hide yourself! Go on and get your picks axes again. You may do for the city, but never for the west end of our town!")

Linguistic surveys

The Survey of English Dialects included Earsdon and Heddon-on-the-Wall in its fieldwork, administering more than 1,000 questions to local informants.

The Linguistic Survey of Scotland included Cumberland and Northumberland (using historic boundaries) in its scope, collecting words through postal questionnaires. Tyneside sites included Cullercoats, Earsdon, Forest Hall, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Wallsend-on-Tyne and Whitley Bay.

Phonology

The phonemic notation used in this article is based on the set of symbols used by . Other scholars may use different transcriptions. Watt and Allen stated that there were approximately 800,000 people in the early 2000s who spoke this form of British English.

Tyneside English (TE) is spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city of around 260,000 inhabitants in the far north of England, and in the conurbation stretching east and south of Newcastle along the valley of the River Tyne as far as the North Sea. The total population of this conurbation, which also subsumes Gateshead, Jarrow, North and South Shields, Whitley Bay, and Tynemouth, exceeds 800,000.

Consonants

Geordie consonants generally follow those of Received Pronunciation, with these unique characteristics as follows:

• /ɪŋ/ appearing in an unstressed final syllable of a word (such as in reading) is pronounced as ən (thus, reading is ˈɹiːdən).
• The Geordie accent does not use the glottal stop in a usual fashion. It is characterised by a unique type of glottal stops. /p, t, k/ can all be pronounced simultaneously with a glottal stop after them in Geordie, both at the end of a syllable and sometimes before a weak vowel.
• T-glottalisation, in which /t/ is realised by ʔ before a syllabic nasal (e.g., button as ˈbʊtʔn̩), in absolute final position (get as ɡɛtʔ), and whenever the /t/ is intervocalic so long as the latter vowel is not stressed (pity as ˈpɪtʔi).
• Glottaling in Geordie is known as 'pre-glottalisation', which is "an occlusion at the appropriate place of articulation and 'glottalisation', usually manifested as a short period of laryngealised voice before and/or after and often also during the stop gap". This type of glottal is unique to Tyneside English.
• Other voiceless stops, /p, k/, are glottally reinforced in medial position, and preaspirated in final position.
• The dialect is non-rhotic like most other dialects of England, with /r/ being realised most commonly as an alveolar approximant , although a labiodental realisation is additionally growing in prevalence among younger females. (This variant is also possible, albeit rarer, in the speech of older males.) Traditionally, intrusive R was not present in Geordie, with speakers instead glottalising between boundaries; however, it is present in newer varieties of the dialect.
• Yod-coalescence in both stressed and unstressed syllables (so that dew becomes dʒɵʊ).
• /l/ is traditionally clear in all contexts, meaning the velarised allophone is absent. However, modern accents may periodically use ɫ in syllable final positions, sometimes it may even be vocalised (as in bottle ˈbɒʔʊ).

Vowels

Vocabulary

The Geordie dialect shares similarities with other Northern English dialects, as well as with the Scots language (See Rowe 2007, 2009).

Dorfy, real name Dorothy Samuelson-Sandvid, was a noted Geordie dialect writer. In her column for the South Shields Gazette, Samuelson-Sandvid attests many samples of Geordie language usage, such as the nouns bairn ("child") and clarts ("mud"); the adjectives canny ("pleasant") and clag ("sticky"); and the imperative verb phrase howay ("hurry up!"; "come on!")

Howay is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!" or the French "Allez-y!" ("Go on!"). Examples of common use include Howay man!, meaning "come on" or "hurry up", Howay the lads! as a term of encouragement for a sports team for example (the players' tunnel at St James' Park has this phrase just above the entrance to the pitch), or Ho'way!? (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief. The literal opposite of this phrase is haddaway ("go away"); although not as common as howay, it is perhaps most commonly used in the phrase "Haddaway an' shite" (Tom Hadaway, Figure 5.2 Haddaway an' shite; 'Cursing like sleet blackening the buds, raging at the monk of Jarrow scribbling his morality and judgement into a book.').

Another word, divvie or divvy ("idiot"), seems to come from the Co-op dividend, or from the two Davy lamps (the more explosive Scotch Davy used in 1850, commission disapproved of its use in 1886 (inventor not known, nicknamed Scotch Davy probably given by miners after the Davy lamp was made perhaps by north east miners who used the Stephenson Lamp), and the later better designed Davy designed by Humphry Davy also called the Divvy.) As in a north east miner saying 'Marra, ye keep way from me if ye usin a divvy.' It seems the word divvie then translated to daft lad/lass. Perhaps coming from the fact one would be seen as foolish going down a mine with a Scotch Divvy when there are safer lamps available, like the Geordie, or the Davy.

The Geordie word netty, meaning a toilet and place of need and necessity for relief or bathroom, has an uncertain origin. However, some have theorised that it may come from slang used by Roman soldiers on Hadrian's Wall, which may have later become gabinetti in the Romance language Italian (such as in the Westoe Netty, the subject of a famous painting from Bob Olley). Gabinetto in Modern Italian actually derives from the French word cabinet, which can also have the meaning of "toilet" (cabinet d'aisances). Thus, another explanation would be that it comes from the Modern Italian plural form of the word gabinetti, though only a relatively small number of Italians have migrated to the North of England, mostly during the 19th century.

Some etymologists connect the word netty to the Modern English word needy. John Trotter Brockett, writing in 1829 in his A glossary of north country words..., claims that the etymon of netty (and its related form neddy) is the Modern English needy and need.

Bill Griffiths, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, points to the earlier form, the Old English níd; he writes: "MS locates a possible early ex. "Robert Hovyngham sall make... at the other end of his house a knyttyng" York 1419, in which case the root could be OE níd 'necessary'". Another related word, nessy is thought (by Griffiths) to derive from the Modern English "necessary".

A poem called "Yam" narrated by author Douglas Kew demonstrates the usage of a number of Geordie words.

References

• Geordie Accent and Dialect Origins, 19 August 2017, englandsnortheast.co.uk, 2016
• Geordie Guide: Defining Geordie, 13 November 2019, Newcastle University, 13 November 2019
• Geordie: A regional dialect of English, The British Library, 19 May 2020, 5 May 2021, dead
• AskOxford.com – a person from Tyneside, 1 September 2007, 29 September 2007
• Andy Gray & Richard Keys: EPL predictions, 29 August 2013, 27 August 2013
• Are you Geordie, a Mackem or a Smoggie?, Tom, Rowley, 21 April 2012, nechronicle, 19 May 2020
• The day Ken Dodd learned not to call Teessiders 'Geordies', Joanne, Welford, 12 March 2018, gazettelive, 19 May 2020
• Meet The Geordie Schooner, 24 September 2010, Forbes, David M., Ewalt
• Newcastle English ("Geordie"), Smith, Georff, Language Varieties, 10 May 2025
• Scots accent is UK's second favourite - UK - Scotsman.com, The Scotsman, 2008-09-24, 2013-06-15, 29 March 2009
• Nickel, Sebastian, 2017, Term paper, The Geordie Dialect. On Language Identity and the Social Perception of Tyneside English, GRIN, subscription
• Simpson, David, Venerable Bede, Bede's Latin poems seem to translate more successfully into Geordie than into modern day English!, 2009, 6 August 2010
• Geordie: A regional dialect of English, 13 November 2019, 5 May 2021, dead
• Geordie, thefreedictionary.com, 7 October 2018
• Jarrow Song, AlLyrics, 7 October 2008
• Blaydon Races, 29 September 2007, 6 November 2007
• Geordie: A regional dialect of English, 13 November 2019, 5 May 2021, dead
• AskOxford.com – from the given name George, 1 September 2007, 29 September 2007
• Brockett, John Trotter, A Glossary of North Country Words in Use with Their Etymology and Affinity to Other Languages, and Occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions, E. Charnley, GEORDIE, George-a very common name among the pitmen. "How! Geordie man! how is't", 1829
• Brockett, John Trotter, A Glossary of North Country Words, revised, GEORDIE, George – a very common name among the pitmen. 'How! Geordie man! How is't' The Pitmen have given the name of Geordie to Mr George Stephenson's lamp in contra-distinction of the Davy, or Sir Humphry Davy's Lamp., 1846, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, E. Charnley
• Samuel, Smiles, The lives of the engineers, III, 1862, chapter 8
• Smiles, Samuel, The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer, As to the value of the invention of the safety lamp, there could be no doubt; and the colliery owners of Durham and Northumberland, to testify their sense of its importance, determined to present a testimonial to its inventor., 1859, Ticknor and Fields
• Northern English: A Cultural and Social History, limited, Katie Wales, 134, –136, 2006, Cambridge University Press
• Wright, Joseph, 1900, English Dialect Dictionary Volume 2: D-G, London, Henry Frowde
• Camden Hotten, John, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary: Or Vulgar Words, Street Phrases and Fast Expressions of High and Low Society, Geordie, general term in Northumberland and Durham for a pitman, or coal-miner. Origin not known; the term has been in use more than a century, 1869, 2004, reprint, 2007-10-11
• Dobson, Scott, A Light Hearted Guide to Geordieland, Graham, 1973, Plus Geordieland means Northumberland and Durham
• Survey of English Dialects: Volume 1 Basic Material, Six Northern Counties and Man: Part 1, Harold, Orton, Wilfrid J, Halliday, 1962, EJ Arnold & Son, Leeds, 17–18
• Petyt, Keith Malcolm, 1980, The Study of Dialect: An introduction to dialectology, Andre Deutsch, 94–96
• 212–213, The Linguistic Atlas of Scotland: Scots Section, Volume 2, Mather, J.Y, Spetiel, H.H., Leslie, G.W., Archon Books, Hamden, Connecticut, 1977
• Glottal variants of (t) in the Tyneside variety of English: an acoustic profiling study, Docherty, Foulkes, Gerard, Paul Foulkes, A Figure of Speech – a Festschrift for John Laver, Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005, Hardcastle, William, Janet Beck, London, 173–199
• Dorphy, Dorothy Samuelson-Sandvid. Dorphy's Geordie dialog, South Shields Gazette, 4 November 2007, 13 April 2003
• Sandvid, D, Basinful o' Geordie: Tyneside Readings, H Hill, 1970
• Dorfy looking fondly back on her youth, Aa wuz a bairn., South Shields Gazette, 29 July 2009, 13 May 2012, 5 August 2009, dead
• Here's a word from Dorfy, Is canny, friendly, hyemly wawds that waarms aall Geordie hearts., South Shields Gazette, 17 March 2009, 13 May 2012
• Here's a word from Dorfy, Wor Geordie taalk is hyemly taalk; an wawds like 'clag' and 'clarts', South Shields Gazette, 17 March 2009, 13 May 2012
• Colls, Robert, Lancaster, Bill, Bryne, David, Carr, Barry, Hadaway, Tom, Knox, Elaine, Plater, Alan, Taylor, Harvey, Williamson, Younger, Paul, Geordies, Hadaway an' shite; 'Cursing like sleet blackening the buds, raging at the monk of Jarrow scribbling his morality and judgement into a book.', Northumbria University Press, 2005
• IMS: Customer Satisfaction: BIP2005 (Integrated Management Systems), An early example, which may be remembered by older readers was the Co-op dividend or 'divvie'. On paying their bill, shoppers would quote a number recorded ..., BSI Standards, 2003
• Henderson, Clarks, NEIMME: Lamps – No. 14. SCOTCH DAVY LAMP., CONSTRUCTION. Gauzes. Cylindrical, 2 ins diameter. 41/2" high with conical top, a double gauze 1 ins. in depth at the peak. 24 mesh iron. Light. Candle., 2 December 2007, 20 November 2008
• Henderson, Clarks, NEIMME: Lamps – No. 16. STEPHENSON (GEORDIE) LAMP., 2 December 2007, 20 November 2008
• Henderson, Clarks, NEIMME: Lamps – No. 1 – DAVY LAMP., 2 December 2007, 20 November 2008
• Graham, Frank, The Geordie Netty: A Short History and Guide, Butler Publishing; New Ed edition, November 1986
• Griffiths, Bill, A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Netty outside toilet, Ex.JG Annfield Plain 1930s. "nessy or netty" Newbiggin-in-Teesdale C20/mid; "outside netties" Dobson Tyne 1972; 'lavatory' Graham Geordie 1979. EDD distribution to 1900: N'd. NE 2001: in circulation. ?C18 nessy from necessary; ? Ital. cabinette; Raine MS locates a possible early ex. "Robert Hovyngham sall make... at the other end of hys house knyttyng" York 1419, in which case root could be OE nid 'necessity'. Plus "to go to the Necessary" (public toilet) Errington p.67 Newcastle re 1800s: "lav" Northumbrian III C20/2 re Crawcrook; "oot back" G'head 2001 Q; "larty – toilet, a children's word, the school larties'" MM S.Shields C20/2 lavatory, Northumbria University Press, 1 December 2005
• Trotter Brockett, John, A glossary of north country words, in use. From an original manuscript, with additions., NEDDY, NETTY, a certain place that will not bear a written explanation; but which is depleted to the very life in a tail-piece in the first edition of Bewick's Land Birds, p. 285. In the second edition a bar is placed against the offending part of this broad display of native humour. Etymon needy, a place of need or necessity., Oxford University, 1829
• Netty, although some theories suggest it is an abbreviation of Italian gabbinetti, meaning 'toilet', 19 September 2008, 19 September 2008, dead
• Urinal finds museum home, the urinals have linguistic distinction: the Geordie word "netty" for lavatory derives from Roman slang on Hadrian's Wall which became "gabinetto" in Italian, 8 October 2007, The Guardian, London, Martin, Wainwright, 4 April 2007
• Famed Geordie netty is museum attraction, The Northern Echo, 31 March 2007
• Vocabolario Treccani
• Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana
• Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales
• Saunders, Rod, Italian Migration to Nineteenth Century Britain: Why and Where, Why?, They were never in great numbers in the northern cities. For example, the Italian Consul General in Liverpool, in 1891, is quoted as saying that the majority of the 80–100 Italians in the city were organ grinders and street sellers of ice-cream and plaster statues. And that the 500–600 Italians in Manchester included mostly Terrazzo specialists, plasterers and modellers working on the prestigious, new town hall. While in Sheffield 100–150 Italians made cutlery., anglo-italianfhs.org.uk, 3 September 2008, 6 October 2008, dead
• Online Etymology Dictionary, Etymonline.com, 2013-06-15
• Online Etymology Dictionary, Etymonline.com, 2013-06-15
• 29 July 2007, YAM narrated by author Douglas Kew, 2 January 2008
• Douglas, Kew, A Traveller's Tale, Trafford Publishing, 7 February 2001

Sources

External links

• Newcastle English (Geordie)